Identification and quantification of two antihepatotoxic coumarinolignoids cleomiscosin A and cleomiscosin B in the seeds of Cleome viscosa using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

A sensitive liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometric (LC/ESI-MS/MS) method was developed for the identification and quantification of two antihepatotoxic coumarinolignoids cleomiscosin A and cleomiscosin B in different extracts of the seeds of Cleome viscosa. The separation of cleomiscosin A and cleomiscosin B was achieved on an RP(18) column using a solvent system consisting of a mixture of acetonitrile-methanol (1:2, v/v) and acetonitrile-water-formic acid (5:95:0.3, v/v) as a mobile phase in a gradient elution mode. A multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) method was developed for quantification of cleomiscosin A and cleomiscosin B in the seed extracts of Cleome viscosa. On the basis of signal-to-noise ratio of 3, the limit of detection in MRM mode for cleomiscosin A and cleomiscosin B were 1.0 and 4.0 ng/mL respectively. The method was validated in terms of linearity, accuracy and precision for 6 days. The method developed was found to be useful for identification and quantification of cleomiscosin A and cleomiscosin B in the different extracts of the seeds of Cleome viscosa.